Losers Need God to Read their Bibles’
This began as a post about the Telios Conference I attended, but it evolved into a reflection on “do I read the Bible without God?” Read the whole post, and you’ll see what I mean.
Scripture and Spirituality
For two and half days, I sat at the feet of world-renowned scholars to soak up nuggets of insight into God’s word. The conference, “Scripture and Spirituality,” took place at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX, and was sponsored by the Telios Society.
The theme seemed broad to me. I mean, isn’t “Scripture and Spirituality” the theme for every conference? My mindset changed as I unpacked the broader discipline of “Spirituality.” One of the speakers, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, is a leading scholar in the field of “Spirituality” and defines it like this
the attempt by an individual or a group to meet a nd undergo the presence of God, other persons, and the cosmic world so as to come into a community of life and celebration with them [1].
The part I have often missed is to “undergo the presence of God.” Usually, I go to scripture intending to learn about God so that I may understand and later speak about him. Of course, I hope to encounter God, but I typically reserve God’s presence for prayer. Scripture stimulates my brain to change my heart, and prayer stirs my soul to change my heart. (OK, I have no idea what that last part means, but I think you get my point.)
This conference sought to bring together Biblical scholars to move beyond transferring information about God and help us learn to experience God while engaging with scripture. This is not normal for academic conferences... and, sometimes, even non-academic ones.[2] Which is why the last thing I expected in San Antonio was to hear scholars emphasize the presence of God within scripture.
Note: If you’d like to read the presentations in their entirety, subscribe to the Telios Journal! I will give my reactions to the presentations but refrain from most of their actual content out of respect for the conference, journal, and presenters.
Meeting God in Scripture
First up was Dr. Gary Selby of Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan. He named his presentation “Meeting God in Scripture: Reading the Bible Honestly and Faithfully.” Without giving too much away, Dr. Selby constantly referred to the analogy of viewing the Bible to God like an owner’s manual of a car. While the manual provides loads of relevant information, there is more to the car than what that little book contains.
He drew from philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s work concerning translation and hermeneutics. Ricoeur states that when we approach any text, doctrine, or practice, we often begin by accepting it without question, which he calls the “first naivete.” It means that we read the text and say to ourselves that we understand it without considering the effect of its context. The hope is to move to what Ricouer calls the “second naivete,”[3] where we can read the text, acknowledge the difference between ourselves and its context and seek to encounter God in scripture.
I loved the analogy, and I enjoyed the presentation. Now, I tend to pride myself on the work I put into understanding the distance between my current reality and the context in which scripture was written. I haven’t read scripture without acknowledging that difference for many years. So, I think I’ve moved beyond that first naivete. But I don’t think I’ve quite moved into that second naivete. I understand the truths God has revealed about himself when I read the Bible, and I try to “hid his word in my heart that I might not sin against [God]” (Ps 119:11). But like I said above, scripture is the foundation on which I build my prayers. Rarely do I encounter God in while reading. When reading, I’m in student mode.
As I thought about this, John 1:14 came to mind.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Word became flesh. I can’t remember where I read this but someone said in this verse “Something became someone.” In Jesus, the word of God comes alive in 4k OLED. John links seeing the glory of the Father through the Son who is the word in flesh. Without delving too deep into trinitarian doctrine, Jesus is the incarnation of God’s word which is God’s “self-expression” revealing his glory. It’s enough to tie your head in knots. But personally, this exposed and reminded me that the Bible is not a textbook for Christianity 101. Jesus stands at the intersection between the written word and encounter with God, and I must approach him there. Interacting with the word facilitates encounters with God rather than resisting them.
What does that mean for me? It means asking myself if I’m trying to read my Bible without God. I can certainly read the words on the page and dive into the deeper context. I can even create some devotional thoughts that I may internalize and pass on to others. But I could learn to do any of that without help from God.
A Loser Who Can’t Even Read His Bible
“Great. Now I can’t even read the Bible right,” I think to myself. After years of instruction on how to study the text, have I messed that up too? No, that’s not the point. The point is that you don’t need to flex your Bible muscles [4] to meet God while you read his word. If Karl Barth, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Terese of Avila, James Cone, N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, Gustavo Guttierez, Greek, Hebrew, and all 12 apostles show up to your morning devotional but God doesn’t, you’ve missed the point of reading scripture.[5]
“Losers” need God in order to read their Bible. “Losers” know they’re not enough to get it on their own. “Losers,” even the most brilliant among us, beg for God to scoop even crumbs of insight into our hands as we read the word because they know it all means nothing without him.
In my zeal to learn how to “properly handle the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15), I can forget that these words are “living and active” (Heb 4:12), and in them, I can meet my God.
In 2 Timothy, Paul instructs his protege that scripture is useful for “teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). This statement is one of the most fundamental principles in my family of churches, and I have embraced it willingly. But this is the second half of the verse and can only be correct if the first part is true. Namely, “all scripture is god-breathed…” The Greek word for “God-breathed” is theopneustos/θεόπνευστος, which combines “theo” for God and “pneustos” which is a derivate of pneuma or “spirit” and “breath.” (By the way, digging into the original language like this is an example of me sliding into student mode. Not that it’s bad, but I have to remember I’m not writing a research paper.) That word tells me that God’s spirit is in the words of the Bible.
Dr. Selby’s presentation sparked a desire in my heart to read the Bible differently. I won’t abandon the tools I have to study the text on deeper levels. But my attitude toward reading will evolve. I want to live in scripture for his presence and not just for its utility. I want to build my life on the rock of Jesus’ words because he is there.
How?
There are centuries' worth of writing on the spiritual discipline of reading the Bible correctly and spiritually, which I will not try to regurgitate here. But here are a few things to try.
Prayer for Meeting: I remember being a kid in children’s ministry at church, where we prayed at the beginning of class that we would “learn more about you today, God.” I think I want to mature past that and say “I want to meet you in your word today. I want to see you in your word today. Please help me learn about you by seeing you and connecting with you as I read your word today.”
Reading to Listen: There is an ancient monastic practice called “lectio divina” which means divine reading. I’m going to dive into that and pass on what I find, but essentially it’s about reading the Bible to facilitate meeting God. One of the pillars is an unhurried, contemplative, meditative reading of the Bible. I need to slow down, maybe even read less, repeat, and listen to God’s voice. As you can probably tell, I like to think and talk. But I wonder how much of my own words are drowning out God’s voice. I’m not talking about rejecting journaling or self-reflection, but I think I need to make more room for his voice.
Take the Lord with me, everywhere I go: If I remember the words I’ve read, and I’ve met God in those words, I can take God with me everywhere I go. Dr. Selby described an experience where he kept the verse “I will make your enemies a footstool for your feet,” in his heart and reflected on it during his day. While he realized he had no human “enemies,” anxiety, anger, and fear were very real. And he heard God’s voice reveal that he would also make those “enemies” a footstool for his feet. By remembering, I can take God with me everywhere and he can speak into everything, even beyond my devotional chair.
I hope you are moved as I was to meet God in scripture. Let’s all decide to not read our Bibles without him again, ok? Let’s be “Losers” who don’t and don’t want to read the Bible without our God.
Notes
[1] Rolheiser, Ron. “Spirituality and Spiritualities.” Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, January 28, 2019. https://ronrolheiser.com/spirituality-and-spiritualities/.
[2] I don’t mean that conferences don’t intend to help people focus on God, I just mean sometimes the focus of the Bible study aspects lean more toward information or procedures about God, rather than walking into his presence. Which, I believe, is appropriate for a lot of subject matter, but in my experience can be out of balance with this kind of spirituality.
[3] Paul Ricœur, The Symbolism of Evil
[4] Bible muscles are truly a weird flex, bro.
[5] I don’t at all mean that we shouldn’t read the work of great Christian thinkers. We should. But I think all of them would agree that all the books they’ve written combined pales in comparison to a single sentence uttered by the true presence of God.
